"A little more than a decade ago, a portion of the Brazos River once prized for its scenic beauty came under threat. The rising popularity of stone facades on homes and businesses and construction, in general, had led to an upsurge in rock, sand and gravel mining operations in the upper portion of the Brazos River basin. As these operations expanded, stormwater permit requirements and best management practices were ignored, resulting in slugs of muddied water moving downstream and taking with it the habitat that made the Brazos River a beautiful, welcoming home for fish and wildlife."

Read the article: http://www.brazos.org/Newsletter/Spring-2017/Monitoring-John-Graves-Scenic-Riverway

I live on the Brazos River in Somervell County. I can attest to the fact the river has drastically changed in the last 15 years. It was primarily a clean gravel bottomed river in all the shallows. Not any more. The shallows are now mostly mud and weeds that you sink into when attempting to wade/fish. The only hard bottoms are where the river runs over a flat rock ledge. All the gravel bottoms are gone. Just a silted in mud bottom. Bass fishing has suffered tremendously. It is just as bad or worse in Somervell County between Granbury and Whitney as it is in Parker County between PK and Granbury. Just below PK dam the river is pretty much like always but as soon as you get below the commercial Sand & Gravel operations the river changes. Likewise we have some HUGE sand & gravel operations in Hood and Somervell Counties not far below Granbury dam. All this change has occurred from the uncontained dirt/mud/sludge runoff from these operations. There are laws for the containment of ALL this runoff...just no "Runoff Police" to make these companies accountable. Sam Walton's(Walmart) daughter was a big voice against these practices a few years ago when she owned a huge ranch on the river in Parker County. Laws are not enforceable if you don't have the manpower to enforce them. Been sad to witness the changes, 361v.